Google Apologizes for “Minions”-Themed April Fools’ Day Prank Gone Wrong

The worst day of the year to be on the Internet is, without a doubt, April Fools’ Day. There’s no shortage of fake news stories. Even tech companies, never missing an opportunity for a timely joke, want to get in on the action. On Friday, Google pulled its April Fools’ Day prank after it inadvertently backfired for some of its users.

The prank was, in theory, simple enough: In Gmail, users would see a “Mic drop” button next to the “Reply” button, where the “Send and Archive” button usually is. Pressing the button would reply and archive an e-mail response—as per usual—but then, it would add a GIF of a Minion (from Universal's Despicable Me franchise) dropping a microphone. “Email’s great, but sometimes you just wanna hit the eject button,” the company said in a blog post explaining the joke. “Like those heated threads at work, when everyone’s wrong except you (obviously). Or those times when someone’s seeking group approval, but your opinion is the only one that matters (amirite?). Or maybe you just nailed it, and there’s nothing more to say (bam).”

Some Gmail users, however, evidently did not realize what the button was for, and did not find its application humorous after they inadvertently inserted the mic drop GIF into business communications and other high-priority e-mails. “Thanks to Mic Drop I just lost my job. I am a writer and had a deadline to meet. I sent my articles to my boss and never heard back from her. I inadvertently sent the email using the ‘Mic Drop’ send button,” one user wrote.. “There were corrections that needed to be made on my articles and I never received her replies. My boss took offense to the Mic Drop animation and assumed that I didn't reply to her because I thought her input was petty (hence the Mic Drop). I just woke up to a very angry voicemail from her which is how I found out about this ‘hilarious’ prank.” Gmail has more than a billion monthly active users, though the company says its Mic Drop prank affected only consumer accounts and not its customers who pay to use Google’s business suite.

Google has since removed the button. “Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year,” a Google spokesperson told Vanity Fair. “Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page."